So, I went down to Battlegrounds Games the other day for a game, and met Dan. He's a relatively new Eldar player, but had some experience with other armies. He offered to try out his Eldar against my Tau, and I took him up on it. The Mission was Take and Hold.

Aun'ui Bork'an Shuri'an raised his arms and called out to the wrestling Fire Caste children around him. "Class! Settle down now!"

The young Tau immediately stopped their roughhousing and knelt in a semi-circle at the foot of the Ethereal.

Nohar, the class 'ui, raised his hand. Shuri'an nodded for him to speak. "What lesson will we learn today, Aun?"

The other children nodded--Nohar always asked the right questions.

Shuri'an allowed himself a broad smile. "Today, little ones, we shall learn about the importance of sacrifice. Meeno, can you tell us all what sacrifice means?"

Meeno--one of the shyer pupils in the class--played with his hooves for a moment before answering. "It's when you give something up."

"Very good, little Meeno. But why do the Tau give things up?"

Hands shot up all over the room. Shuri'an pointed at Iski, a promising young female. She was quivering with excitement as she yelled "For the Greater Good!"

"Tau'va!" The class repeated as one.

"Very good--very good, all of you. Now, sit still and be good little warriors as I tell you about Shas'el Bork'an Tov'mai and his battle against the selfish Ancient Starfarers." Shuri'an sat crosslegged among the children, and raised his arms. With every pair of onyx eyes upon him, he began, "Long ago, on a sept colony very far from here, El'Tov'mai was called to defend the Empire against the cruel and selfish species known as 'Eldar'. They have no knowledge of Tau'va, for they have arrogantly refused to speak with us. When they come, they come only to take from those who have earned. They are a species of thieves and pirates, and are not to be trusted by any Tau. El'Tov'mai knew this, so he set a trap to catch the Eldar as they planned to invade his colony. Now, the Eldar had with them a..."

Terrain and DeploymentThe Objective, at board center, was a small cluster of ruins. To its east was a series of three buildings, one on the north edge, one on the south edge, and one in the middle (more or less). To its west were a number of hills, one south, and two large ones in the north. There was clearly more cover on the east side than the west, but it was easy to stay out of LOS in the west so long as you didn't charge headlong into no-man's land.

Dan won deployment and took the north edge. His Scorpions and Guardians deployed along and behind the hill in the west, while the Avatar, Dark Reapers, and first group of pathfinders deployed along/behind the hill at the center. His second group of pathfinders infiltrated behind the objective, while his second group of guardians stood in the open between the center hill and the building in the east. The Harlequins took the bottom floor of the building and the Wraithlord clambered to the top, standing, King Kong-like, over the whole battlefield. Both the Spiders and Hawks were set to deep strike.

I split my army into two 'wings'. In the east, behind and within the buildings, went both Devilfish, my Crisis Suits, my Commander, and the Kroot infiltrated ahead to the next building up. My Piranhas didn't have room to fit back there, so they deployed in the open next to the SE building. The other group involved my twin Hammerheads and Stealth Team, who all took up positions behind the SW hill. Having learned my lesson in the past two games about the frequent uselessness of deepstriking, all of my guys started on the field.

Turn 1I won first turn, but not before Dan's pathfinders scouted into the objective, claiming their cover save. My overall plan was simple--the Hammerheads and Stealths would kick out an enormous amount of firepower and draw the same (hopefully), but stay basically in the same place, while my Devilfish, Piranha, Kroot, and Suits would sweep in towards the objective, blowing up any resistance in their way. I've tried this plan before (see my last game), but I've never stuck to it. Today I was sticking, no matter what.

The turn started out well, with my Hammerheads hovering over the hill and landing two railgun hits, one on each pack of guardians. The western guardians, thanks to some additional burst cannon fire, was reduced to just 1 model. The other group lost 5 out of 10. The stealth team then tore up the Scorpions, killing 3 of 5. Thanks to the fearsome presence of the Avatar, nobody ran. In the east, my Kroot stumbled trying to get into the center building (snake eyes on a difficult terrain roll) and nobody had range to shoot much of anything except the Commander, who sprayed down the Pathfinders on the objective and killed 1. The Piranha jetted forwards to form an assault wall between the Harlequins and the Kroot. The two devilfish wound their way between the city streets, advancing on the enemy while still under cover.

Dan began his turn by advancing his Harlies out of the building and shooting down a piranha with a fusion pistol. This was probably not a great move, but his other option involved legging it *around* the piranha, which would take them out of the fight for two turns at least. One drone survived the skimmer's crash, but the Harlies were unable to assault it, due to the vagaries of 4th edition assault rules. The only other movement was the scorpions and single Guardian in the west, who advanced as far as they could into no-man's land, and the Avatar, who shuffled forward and inch or two to keep the Fearless bubble in range of everybody (a bit of a mistake on my opponent's part--the Avatar should have started to leg it towards my army). Meanwhile, the Dark Reapers gunned down most of my Crisis Suits (oh well, but they weren't going to be clutch in this game, anyway), and a smattering of sniper fire killed a stealth suit. The Wraithlord shot at something, but didn't hit.

Turn 2In turn 2, I decided it was time for the Harlies to die. I disembarked all of my Piranha drones and zoomed my first Devilfish into rapid fire range, where it dropped its two drones and 10 FWs. The lone crisis suit, not to be left out, zoomed up to use his flamer (but really got a little *too* close for optimal flamer coverage, but whatever). The ensuing truckload of pusle-weapon fire wiped every single one of the buggers out, but not in the most efficient manner. My 20 shot FWs barrage only hit 5 times for 3 harlie kills, which was terrible. My Commander had to move in to take up the slack, finishing the last of them off with his cyclic ion blaster and plasma rifle.

The Piranhas, their payload delivered, zoomed north to try frying the Wraithlord in the building, doing one wound with their fusion blasters. The Kroot yet again stumbled trying to get into the building (2-inch move this time) and contributed to the slaughter of the Harlies with their shooting. In the west, the Hammerheads annihilated every guardian but one in the eastern group (who passed his test), killed a Dark Reaper, and killed off the remaining Scorpions. The stealths gunned down another pathfinder on the objective.

At this point, Dan's offensive plans seemed to be a bit stalled, as he was banking on the Harlies to make contact. His reserves didn't show up, and his lone guardian fled the field. The only movement was the Avatar, who went full speed towards my western flank, but was just short of a magic-sword shot at a Hammerhead. His two groups of snipers finished off the remaining crisis suit but missed the stealth team (thanks to the stealth field--first time its worked in literally dozens of games). His Wraithlord shot at a Hammerhead, but failed to do any damage. The Dark Reapers shot at...somebody, but didn't do any damage as I recall, or at least not much. Turn 2 wrapped up for Dan with him having done precious little damage to my army.

Turn 3At this point in the game, I couldn't have asked for a better situation. I've taken only minimal casualties and yet have done a lot of damage to the enemy. My only worry is now his Avatar and his deepstriking troops. The turn begins with the Piranha continuing to convince the Wraithlord to stay in the building and keep his head down by shooting at him but with no effect (thanks to cover). My two Devilfish continue to advance, with one of them still keeping its payload of FWs primed and ready (with only one anti-tank weapon still on the board, I was fairly confident it would survive any attacks). My Kroot successfully occupied their building (finally), and tried shooting the Reapers, who were out of range. My disembarked FWs advanced on the objective, gunning down two more pathfinders there with sheer weight of fire. The Commander picked off a Reaper at long range, while the Hammerhead submunition accounted for another one, leaving just two of them on the board. The other Hammerhead along with the Stealths ripped into the Avatar, doing only a wound after a bunch of good armor saves by Dan. Finally, my drones flitted her and there, shooting targets of opportunity--the Reapers, the Wraithlord, etc.--but doing nothing more than making a nuisance of themselves.

Dan's reserves arrive in this turn, and both at once. The spiders drop behind one of my hammerheads, scoring a lot of glancing hits which all come up 1s and 2s, so lucky for me. His Hawks drop by my disembarked FWs, shooting them up something awful, and kill 4-5 of them. His Avatar shoots and charges the other Hammerhead, but only manages to shake it, as well. The Wraithlord shoots at the un-manned Devilfish (not sure why) and does nothing.

Turn 4I split my Hammerheads up, sending them 12" in opposite directions, hoping at least one will survive to shoot again. Meanwhile, my second devilfish drops another lethal payload of FWs on the Hawks doorstep. Their fire, along with the shooting from the Kroot, is enough to wipe them out. My stealth team kills 2 Spiders and my commander, rolling terribly, kills another 1. My Piranhas keep strafing the Wraithlord (I'm fairly surprised they are still alive), but do nothing. My drones and the unmanned Devilfish succeed in wiping out the Reapers. The only things Dan has left now are 2 Warp Spiders, an Avatar, a Wraithlord, and a smattering of pathfinders. Things continue to look good.

Dan uses his Avatar and Warp Spiders to shoot and assault my stealths, wiping them out. Unfortunately, the shooting kept the Avatar from reaching assault, so he continued to languish in the open. The Wraithlord shot at a Devilfish, immobilizing it. The lone pathfinder occupying the objective killed a single FW, while the other 5 shot the front armor of the other unmanned devilfish, accomplishing nothing.

Turn 5I need the Avatar to die, and now. If he hits any of my FW squads, he'll start consolidating from squad to squad until he wipes me out. I shoot him with both teams of FWs, the Hammerheads, and my commander. I do another 2 wounds (again, crazy armor saves), but don't knock him out. A stray burst cannon from my distant Hammerhead along with the Kroot kill off the Warp Spiders. My Piranhas do another wound to the Wraithlord, and the immobilized devilfish bangs the last nail in the coffin, with a lucky shot that kills the Wraithlord dead. It is at this point we realize we had forgotten about wraithsight for the whole game.The mobile Devilfish tank-shocks the 5 pathfinders (far, far away), but they don't run.

Because there is no other way to save my FWs, my commander moves forward to block the Avatar's assault of my infantry, sacrificing himself for the Greater Good.

The Avatar incinerates the commander with his sword-shot. He twiddles his thumbs. Nothing else happens.

Turn 6The Firewarriors, Hammerheads, and Kroot pile a mountain of fire into the Avatar. After about a billion 3+ saves, he finally dies. As a coup de' grace, drones assault the long pathfinder on the objective, killing him. Only Tau hold the center now.

Post MortemAfter two straight losses, it felt good to get a win under my belt. Dan was inexperienced with the Eldar, and I think this was his downfall. He moved his army too slowly and too recklessly, he chose the wrong targets (why shoot at unmanned Devilfish, anyway), and had some bad luck. For me, everything went according to plan. There were small things I could have improved, but I have no major complaints. My luck, also, wasn't terrible for once. I rolled about par for each of my units, getting some good rolls and bad rolls alike. My Hammerheads performed better than they have for me in a long time. This is, in part, due to the lack of AT Dan brought, but also I was managing to hit with my railguns, which usually doesn't happen for me. I do expect, however, that my next game against Dan will see a lot more anti-tank.

In any case, it was a fun game, and Dan was a gracious and entertaining opponent. Thanks for reading!

very, very well played game, and another excellent report as usual. It looked like everything went like clockwork. Seeing a good strategy executed by an army running like a well oiled machine is a rare pleasure. Good job!

I wonder, though, I saw his hawks in pre-turn-3 pictures? What was going on with that?

Nice to see win for the greater good! I still love your fluff, which is again a nice change for "Commander blah and blah stared out across the battlefield". Also nice to have some alien fluff since all the stories GW churns out are ussually marine or chaos point of view. Very heroic of your commander to throw himself at that avatar as well

Good job taking those harlies out right away, they would of munched through your whole army.

Good game Wyddr, and that was an "Awesome" BatRep.... The Eldar list was not soft so you did well for game play, although you got some luck here and there too. and your Tau list is pretty solid too... In the end The Best Painted Army won (only fitting - and did I ever mention that I really like your Paint scheme) so once again Well Done, and thanks for making such a great BatRep.

Do you really think his list was all that good? It seemed to me to have not a whole lot of offense vs a shooty opponent, and many squads were too small to get the job done. The Wraithlord/Harlies/Reapers were the only real threats. Everything else was too small or too undergunned, in my opinion.

Were you in his place, Supreme, how would you have played it?

P.S.: Thanks for the painting praise! I must be pretty good at making a so-so paintjob look good, since my painting is certainly not very sophisticated.

OK, I said that his list wasn't "soft", that does not mean it was "uber" as it certainly wasn't; but there are a number of surprisingly useful units in his list. Allow me to extrapolate. Oh and please understand that Eldar work best when they are in Synergetic army configurations; so although things like Avatars, Harlequins, Wraithlords are very resilient... they need to have good support from other units and the whole army needs to be used in a complimentary manner where each unit supports other units to bring out he best in each while exploiting the enemy... I do not to go into great detai on each unit (I have a sticky post for that with the link in the Signature); but... I will give you some ideas of what could have been differently (Note the word Different, Not Better, as play style is also very relavant to the Eldar, and what works for one general does not work for all generals).

HQAvatar Now this guy can be a serious "Fearless Totem Pole" and guys that build a strong assault base around it, or something with resilience can use this to "Anchor" the core of their army as needed. Considering he had 20 Guardians in there (and maybe that WL as well), he could have walked all 20+ figures right into your army, and kept his nasty assault stuff behind it (Scorpions & Harlequins) to ensure more success (forces Target priority tests etc)... As you mentioned yourself, the Avatar should have brought the fight to you, and it should have been packing most of his army in close proximity.

Elites5 Striking Scorpions, Exarch (both powers and Claw) This squad should have been larger (for my liking; but the basis is there) As mentioned, if these were used as a second wave assault group they could have been a lot more dangerous to you; but even easier, they could have used Shadowstrike to get in your face straight away; to force you to devide your fire or get assaulted on Turn 2. But I personnally would have marched them up behind the "Totem Pole" to make a good assault on you.10 Harlequins w/Kisses, including Troupe Master and Shadowseer, 2 Fusion Pistols The squad is overbuilt slightly (for my liking as I don't find FP's that usefull and think that 2 Scorpions would have been better) but aside from that, they are still quite formidable; if they were used as a second wave assault unit.... Exploit the VOD, and bring them up with the "Anchor" to ensure delivery into the enemy. 5 Warp Spiders, Exarch w/Spinneret Rifle, Powerblades, Deep Strike (which are a Fast Atatck Choice BTW) This can be a seriously nasty configuration (although the squad is a bit small). I know that Deepstrike can be great; but without an Autarch (to hedge the Reserve rolls) I would start them on the table.... They are easy to hide, and can in most cases be unloading their Death Spitters on turn 2.... They are actually good on side/rear armour of vehicles (easy points draw).. and vs Tau infantry, I even shoot and then assault (although Withdraw is the more usefull power in this case). Now the fact that when they came in.. they only bounced bullets off of your armour is moot... they should have been on the table and been killing Suits on Turn 2+... EML's, Avatar, Wraithlord, Hawks... all could have dealt with your armour... better than hoping to arrive, hoping ot get rear armour, hoping for a decent "Glance Roll".

Troops10 Guardians w/EML10 Guardians w/EML As I mentioned, these guys could have advanced with his "Totem Pole"... You would be forced to kill every last one of them to silince the 2 EML's and more likely than not, he would have had those Scorpions and Harlies close behind to assault you as the Guardians withered. One of their best attributes is that they could have hemmed you into one corner, so that he would get a good assault on some of your stuff. Oh and those EMML's should have been used to try and silince your Hammer Heads.. 5 Pathfinders5 Pathfinders Now a little known secret with Pathfinders is that they can infact assault on Turn 1... Maybe not realavant here but the principle of the option is important... he only Infiltrated 1 group... he could have done both... exactly 12" from you and out of LOS, then used his "Scout" move to enter the terrain directly in front of you (I didn't see anything about him exploiting the Scout move). Thus, he would enjoy his awesome cover save, force you do deal with the Pathfinders ASAP.. Either with shooting or assault which for Tau is not normally your best option as he is in cover, and the Pathfinders can still fight with some finesse. If you ignored them to focus on his "Anchor" etc, then their Sniper fire could have seriously hurt as your angles to get suits out of LOS would have been tricky.

Fast Attack6 Swooping Hawks w/Exarch (Intercept, Sunrifle) I see in his deployment that these guys were sort of left "off the table" (again, without an Autarch, this is not a great tactical move)... why did he not start them in the Building (to get the cover saves - just in case)... anyway... aside from that; they should have assaulted 1 of your Devil Fish of Fury on their turn 1 (Move, Fleet, Assault).. with their Haywire Grenades and Intercept (in case your unaware, Intercept allows him to hit with half his attacks - no matter what - and Haywire Grenades glance/pen about 85% of the time), they were almost sure to drop it and kill much of the infantry inside... even if half of the Hawks died (in the explosion)they would have easily paid for themselves, and more likely than not, forced you to kill the rest of them, or suffer another Devil Fish/Hammer Head loss....

Heavy SupportWraithlord w/EML, Star Cannon Lucky for you it wasn't an EML/BL combo... but anyway... its still uber reslient (as is the Avatar, his potential Host, the Harlies, etc...) OK, on to its use... he should have used this with his "Anchor" to draw fire, to have potential assault, to move and shoot the crap out of Priority Targets (like the Hammerheads)5 Dark Reapers The best use for these is Suit removal; but since you could probably hide them easily enough,... he had to really think about their placement well. Having them off to one side, allowd you to avoid them and deal with as needed... if he was going to put them on one side, then a Building would be my Choice.... otherwise a more central possition is better... Anyway... they really need to be used with other units to work well, between 2 Sniper Units, his mobile stuff, and the D-reapers... he should have been able to remove a lot of your LOS limiting options.... otherwise these guys simply get saturated with bullets too early on (one more reason to not Reserves BTW, as it gives the opponent more units to divide fire between). Oh I also forgot to mention this; but... Rreaper Launchers are quite decent for removing Armour=10 vehicles... as they hit often and the number of dice is often enough to take those light "Piranahs" out.

I definitely agree about the Hawks/Spiders--holding in reserve was a bad move, and having to deal with a Haywire charge early on would have made things complicated. Oh, and about Reapers Vs Piranhas--the little skimmers are AV11 to the front, which increases their resiliency to the Reaper Launcher significantly.

Interesting tidbit about the Guardians: Killed the vast majority of them on Turn 1. One squad had only one guy left, and my opponent *insisted* that he needed two guardians to man the EML. I told him I didn't think he did, but I wasn't in the mood to argue too hard over something that was definitely good for me. The guardians ceased to exist very rapidly, in any case, and fired one Krak missile the whole game.

I definitely agree about the Hawks/Spiders--holding in reserve was a bad move, and having to deal with a Haywire charge early on would have made things complicated. Oh, and about Reapers Vs Piranhas--the little skimmers are AV11 to the front, which increases their resiliency to the Reaper Launcher significantly.

Yes; but they are still AV=10 everywhere else, and as I said earlier, the real key to him doing better was to cut the angles down on you... He failed to take tabel control, and that is what lost him the game in the end... aside form small tweeks to his unit configs, etc.

Interesting tidbit about the Guardians: Killed the vast majority of them on Turn 1. One squad had only one guy left, and my opponent *insisted* that he needed two guardians to man the EML. I told him I didn't think he did, but I wasn't in the mood to argue too hard over something that was definitely good for me. The guardians ceased to exist very rapidly, in any case, and fired one Krak missile the whole game.

As mentioned, his units needed minor Tweeks (concealing Warlocks would have prevented a lot of loss of life, or even just starting them in terrain)... I think his Set-Up was probably the worst part of his game, as most of the list was actually decent.. and could have been used somewhat effectively vs Tau. Oh and just for the Rules Experts sake... you only need any 1 crew member to use an Eldar Platform weapon.... Ever.

Yeah, I know he did (checked my Eldar codex when I got home), but, as I said, he was very insistent.

I was arguing a lot of rules with him on a lot of things. He was also certain Scorpions had Fleet, for instance, and I had to show him in his own codex that he didn't. Pick your battles, you know?

BTW--I don't mean to say he was a cantankerous opponent, he just didn't know very well how his army worked.

The Piranhas are AV10 elsewhere, true. This is, however, where we leave 'statistics' and actually enter into gameplay (which is hard to theorize)> Suffice to say that I haven't had anything hit a Piranha at AV10 that hadn't deepstriked behind them or that I intentionally allowed to do so.